The 2008 Fall Board Meeting, although lacking some of the fireworks
of past sessions, has been a long, drawn out affair which has
yet to adjourn as this is written in the wake of another successful
year for the World Boardgaming Championships. Like most sessions,
much was discussed but little was changed as the pros and cons
of various subjects were aired yet again without sufficient movement
to cause much change in how things will be conducted going forward
into 2009. What follows is a brief glimpse into what was decided for our organization's coming year.

HOTEL CONTRACT EXTENSION:The single most significant development was the negotiation
and signing of a 5-year extension of our contract with Lancaster
Host extending our stay in Lancaster, PA through 2015. The site extension agreement consumed most, but by no means
all, of our time. The dates
(including the preceding weekend pre-cons) are:

July 30 - August 7, 2011

July 28 - August 5, 2012

July 27 - August 4, 2013

August 2 - August 10, 2014

August 1 - August 9, 2015

The new contract includes another option to purchase tables
to enhance Host's inventory sufficiently for our needs while increasing
our meeting space commitment. Guest room price increases were
kept below the current rate of inflation thus assuring the WBC
of a stable site which is both affordable and large enough to
accommodate our ever growing needs. After review of improvements made by the current ownership
including this past year's addition of a state-of-the-art poolside
pavilion, the Board felt that Lancaster Host represented the
best combination of value and size for our needs in the Mid-Atlantic
region.

GM BREAKFAST: Discussion soon turned to whether we should
continue last year's GM Breakfast. The Board's reaction seemed
to mirror that of the majority of the GMs whose support was
lukewarm. Approximately a third of the GMs who had RSVPed in the
affirmative failed to show, and amongst those who did attend, the
reaction ran the gamut from enthusiasm to a preference for staying
in bed. Consequently, the Board decided to skip the Breakfast
in 2009 and revisit the possibility again in the future. Thus, events
will commence daily at 9 AM in 2009.

WBC EXPANDS TO ONE WEEK + PRE-CONS: Next on the agenda was a discussion of the increasing number
of people arriving early in the week, many accompany other family
members attending pre-cons. This was causing a problem in that
we had not budgeted sufficient space to accommodate "open
gamers" before WBC actually started. It also caused friction
with those early arrivals wanting to pick up their badges before
they were effective. Simply contracting for more space to accommodate
them was inconsistent with charging for pre-cons while open gamers
used the space for free. Since Open Gaming consumes nearly as
many resources as tournament play, it is unfair to charge one
group and not the other—especially since doing so provides a
financial disincentive to compete—which goes against our very
raison d'etre.

Our solution was to extend WBC to a full week and devote the
extra day to Open Gaming and the demos of the Sampler Showcase.
An expanded BPA Game Library will be available for free checkout
of games provided by publishers throughout the week. Extra space
has now been budgeted for Open Gaming so that early arrivals cannot
only be accommodated but encouraged. A few tournaments will take
place on Monday but not enough to conflict with each other or
the Auction on Tuesday. Only the ongoing weekend Pre-Cons may overlap the
auction. The former Monday Pre-Cons will now be included free
of charge to normal WBC admissions.

All of this has been funded by raising the cost of the Sustaining
membership for early pre-registrants $10 to $70 - the same price
those who have joined after Jan 1st have been paying anyway. This
keeps the cost of WBC attendance to the same $10 per day we've
always charged. Only the December members saw an increase of
any kind and they were compensated by receiving a free WBC T-Shirt
and full color yearbook—either of which would cost $10 or more
if sold separately. Bottom line—these changes go beyond being
revenue neutral and should reduce our annual operating surplus
to near break even levels if attendance remains steady.

NEW FORMAT ADDED: Lastly, we again discussed the discontent of some of the multiple
heat, four-player events with the standard tie-breaker policies.
Roughly, the issue is that there are still some GMs who dislike
the standardized tie-breakers. Although we feel that standard
tiebreakers provide a significant aide to the public and make
the convention as a whole easier to understand, we have decided
to allow an exception for the HMW format. The new format is called
HMW/G. The first tie-breaker remains Most Wins. Any subsequent
tiebreakers must be specified by the GM. Tie-breakers must be
specified in the events preview page and approved by BPA no later
than Feb 28th and no tie-breaker can involve adding an additional, unscheduled
(i.e. fourth) round of play. Quarter-Finals must be approved
and scheduled by BPA no later than Feb 28th.

FEEDBACK: Lastly,
all members are reminded that they can get
the ear of the Board for any WBC-related
topic simply by emailing the Convention Director
at doncon99@toad.net,
or any Board member for that matter.
All reasonable requests are aired for
the entire Board during our annual
meeting.